The culture of work, evolved

For the times they are a-changin'

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At 3PM on June 23, 2008 we got approval from the owner of a property in east Austin we’ve been in negotiations over for a couple of weeks.

At 5PM on June 23, 2008 we sent a message to a few people over the messaging network Twitter about having a sneak preview and some champagne at the space.

At 9PM on June 23, 2008 we had people from all over coming in to check it out.

Put anything out on Twitter and you know it will get spread around like a cold at a daycare—the great thing about Austin’s super-supportive community.Mondo thanks to everyone who came out last night!More videos will be coming soon as they’re edited, encoded and uploaded.

Dusty put some pictures on Flickr as well.If you have content from last night, send it my way or drop a link in the comments!I had a blast last night, I hope everyone did too.

Many of you may have noticed the inactivity in David, Dusty, John and my Twitter feeds lately.At times, this can mean really bad or really good things.As of today, we’ve officially stopped our search for a coworking space in Austin.

As I’m writing this right now, I have the keys in my hand to Austin’s first coworking space.Wait, wha?The wait is officially over!The last space I wrote about before has been found, secured and signed for.Sorry for the build up—I couldn’t just pass up on the surprise!Find us at 1309 E. 7th St. in beauuuutiful east Austin.

We could not have done this alone and I want to thank everyone for their support along the way, including (but definitely not limited to) Drew Jones, Julie Gomoll, Todd Sundsted, Jim Hillhouse, family, close friends, the coworking community at large, anyone who we pitched the idea and especially the Austin tech community.Without your encouragement and belief in our idea, this would not be possible at all.We are forever grateful and appreciative of EVERY single way you’ve helped us along this journey.THANK YOU!

We’re so excited about the space and can’t wait to get everyone in there.Add us on Twitter or add the blog RSS to your Google Reader. As soon as we can get people inside, we’ll let you know.See you at the space!Who’s ready to party???

In case we haven’t talked to you in person recently (at Austin Startup Drinks perhaps?), it turns out we lost the space at 501 Studios within 24 hours.We were really excited about the space and losing it was a huge learning experience.Ultimately, though, it just fired us up to keep on truckin’ and find the perfect spot.(As an aside, it turns out the 501 space used to house the local tech company Nossa TV; it probably still smelled like “startup” in there!)

At the advice of Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad Coworking (which will be opening up soon in Austin as well), we solicited the advice of a tenant representative.She even gave us the name of the one she used to find the spot for the forthcoming LaunchPad.Julie’s been nothing but supportive since we came together at SXSW and I think it’s safe to say we’re both cheering each other on to get coworking to Austin as fast as possible.It’s great to think that Austin will go from zero to two coworking spaces over the summer.

In case you were unaware, just like we were, a tenant rep serves as the middleman and negotiator between the landlord and the client (in this case, us) and to date, the contact Julie provided has been nothing short of amazing.He really gets the concept of coworking and totally embraces it (he’s even shown up to Jelly!).Since he knows exactly the kind of spot we’re looking for, we don’t really have to wade through too many spaces that don’t fit what we’re trying to do.He’s shown us a few spaces and just last week, we put in an offer for a pretty wicked space (seen above).We turned down taking over this artist’s studio space—for the size, not for fear that it was haunted, for the record.

Currently, we’re waiting to hear back from the owner in a few days.This one has some great potential and we love the feel that a stand-alone house would provide.While we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s definitely not anywhere near the end of the race.

To view the past spaces we’ve seen (at least the ones we’ve documented), make sure to check out Dusty’s Flickr photosets.Beyond the coworking space shots, he’s also got some pretty sweet vintage family photo scans and pictures of his dog in there too.

Make sure you’re following us on Twitter or you have the RSS feed in your reader of choice because as soon as we sign that lease, it will for sure go on there!

The past few weeks have been spent looking at potential coworking spaces in Austin.Late last week we came across a spot in the 501 Studios complex, most notably the home of Progress Coffee and tons of other cool companies just east of downtown Austin.We were excited about being a part of such a cool community, both in 501 and in east Austin (the city’s fastest growing part of town).Here are some shots of the space we were tweeting about here, thereandeverywhere Tuesday afternoon.

After soliciting feedback from potential coworkers via Twitter DMs,emailing people who have filled out our membership questionnaire and making some select phone calls to loved ones and advisors, we decided to bite the bullet, throw down a deposit and sign a one-year lease.We were flooded with responses and electronic notes of encouragement (many thanks if you sent something our way; your messages were the main reason behind us moving forward with the space).

Not all huge endeavors come easy though, as we’ve come to learn these past few months.In a strange turn of events, even though the deposit for the space is in, it looks like we’ll have to wait 48 hours to find out if we can sign the lease.It’s a situation that’s out of our control at this point, but we’re not letting us stop the momentum we gained today.We’re going to continue to look for spaces that align with our ultimate vision and we’ll keep pushing until we can provide a space that’s going to help Austin’s coworking community kick ass.

Initially, the situation we found ourselves in was frustrating but is one that has taught us a few lessons.One reason is why you’re reading this right now—we need to be chronicling our escapades more and more so you can know what we’re up to and for the benefit of the coworking community.We’ve benefitted so much from the transparency of others doing the same thing.We need to be contributing too.

A second thing is something Dusty mentioned to me over lunch at Progress: the awesomeness of the Austin tech/entrepreneur community.Today we realized the connectedness of people in this town and the desire for wanting cool stuff to happen in their town.Y’all want to see this happen as much as we do and I can’t begin to tell you how inspiring and motivating that is.While my celebratory tweet might have been a bit premature, even coworkers from around the nation sent their congratulations within seconds, including reps from New Work City, Independents Hall and even a friend right here in Austin opening Launchpad Coworking on 8th & Brazos.

We are part of some great communities and we can’t wait for the vision of our community to come to fruition.

Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the connectedness that all of my gadgets and social networks provide, but today this helped me and the guys move one step closer to realizing a dream we are super passionate about.Again, thanks for the encouragement; we really couldn’t have done it without you.Look for more updates from now on.If you have questions, you know where to get to us.Hell, we’d even love to meet you for coffee sometime.We hear Progress makes one mean turkey sandwich.See you on the east side!

Man, how much more can we play into the whole Texas thing?I’m the one who always says that Austin should be at the point where it’s known as just “Austin” the way New York and San Francisco don’t need state references.BUT, I digress.

Here’s a video I made while John and I were driving around one night, after flying the powerkite at Zilker Park around midnight on a windy night.The song on the video is “Someone Great” by LCD Soundsystem (don’t sue me).Enjoy and add me on Vimeo!

Photostream

About Conjunctured

Conjunctured was the first coworking space in Austin, Texas and is one of the oldest and most established coworking brands in the world. Today, there are 23 coworking spaces in Austin and over 3,500 spaces across the world. In September 2014, after six years of coworking, the Conjunctured house closed its doors. Following its closure, in an effort to open the 'coworking model' into greater society, Conjunctured partners, Drew and David, launched The OpenWork Agency, a Coworking Strategy Consultancy.